


Exposed

by pasteldanhowells



Category: phanfiction - Fandom
Genre: AU, Angst, Coming Out, Exposed, Fluff, M/M, Stalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-24
Updated: 2015-03-24
Packaged: 2018-03-19 10:00:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3606033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pasteldanhowells/pseuds/pasteldanhowells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan and Phil have been in a relationship for quite some time now and even when hiding, things seem to have been going smoothly. A picture had been posted by a phangirl and things quickly change and things get more complicated than ever for Dan and Phil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exposed

"That was an amazing radio show tonight. So much fun." Phil said happily.

"Yeah! It actually was. Phil, can we stop at Starbucks on the way home?" Dan asked as he looked over at Phil.

"Yeah, of course we can stop," Phil replied. He walked over to Dan and smiled.

“Okay, good. This day has been so long. I can’t wait to get home and relax,” Dan said.

“And by relax you mean browse mindlessly on the internet until 5 a.m.” Both Dan and Phil laughed.

It was now a Sunday night, after 9 o’clock. Dan Howell and Phil Lester had just finished their last radio show of 2013. It was close to Christmas and the holiday’s time, so Dan and Phil were taking December off from their radio show and were going to spend the rest of the year relaxing. They were both excited about it as they have had such a busy year. They couldn’t wait to go home and just spend some quality time together without having anything to worry about. They just wanted to cuddle up next to each other on the couch and watch a couple of movies until they fell asleep.

Dan and Phil had been best friends for four years and they’ve been dating each other for three of those years. They were still best friends even while they were dating each other. Nothing’s changed that. They were both popular Youtubers—Dan with three million subscribers and Phil with over one million subscribers—so they had to keep their relationship private. It was Dan who didn’t mind keeping their relationship a secret. He much preferred if their subscribers didn’t know of their relationship. Phil, on the other hand, wanted to tell their subscribers. Dan knew this. But, Phil would do anything to keep Dan happy so he agreed to keep their relationship a secret for as long as they could. It kept Dan happy so Phil was happy.

"I can’t believe it’s our last radio show of the year," Dan whispered as he wrapped his arms around Phil’s waist.

"I can’t believe our radio show even lasted this long," Phil admitted as he looked down at his boyfriend.

Dan sighed happily. “Yeah…And I didn’t even swear like everyone thought I would!”

Phil laughed at him. “You did say ‘damn’ and ‘hell’ a lot though and some other inappropriate things that I’m surprised didn’t get us fired from the BBC,” he pointed out. Phil leaned forward and kissed Dan once on the lips.

Dan giggled lightly as he looked up at Phil, still keeping a hold of him.

“But I am very, very proud of you for not swearing.” Phil whispered.

Dan smiled, blushing a little, and immediately kissed him back. “Shall we get going then?”

Phil nodded. “Yeah, let’s, before it gets too late. I’m kind of getting hungry too.”

“We’ll make dinner together then, because I’m also hungry.” Dan said, giggling a little.

Phil laughed again and kissed Dan once more.

Dan let go of Phil and then Phil gently grabbed Dan’s hand and led the way out of the studio. Dan smiled as he followed Phil.

"Why is it so dark out tonight? It’s only 9 o’clock!" Phil whined as they walked out of the BBC building.

Dan sighed. He glanced over and immediately let go of Phil’s hand when he saw a girl nearby.

"Dan, what’s wrong?" Phil asked, concerned, when Dan had let go of his hand so quickly. Phil looked over to where Dan was staring, and then he also saw the girl. Phil’s eyes went wide with shock. He or Dan hadn’t expected to see anyone outside. It was usually quiet and empty, which is why Dan and Phil hadn’t minded holding hands with each other as they walked outside, it was usually the only time they were able to hold hands with each other outside of their apartment.

The girl immediately ran over to them once she saw that they were staring at her.

"Hello there," Phil greeted as she walked up to them.

"Oh my freaking gosh. I can’t believe it’s actually you! All that waiting was totally worth it!" she squealed with excitement.

"Whoa, wait a minute; have you been waiting out here this whole time?" Dan asked, shocked. It had been a couple hours now since he and Phil had arrived at the BBC studio. He didn’t know why anyone would wait so long for them.

The girl nodded, smiling as she looked at Dan and Phil back and forth.

Phil frowned. “Oh, um, didn’t you hear that we stopped letting viewers wait outside months ago?” he asked nervously.

"I-I know you did. I saw your tweets a couple months ago, but I’m not able to go to Summer in the City and I was just hoping that I’d be able to catch you while I’m here…" she explained. "My name’s Lucy!" She smiled.

Phil chuckled. “Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Lucy. How old are you?” he asked curiously.

"13! But… my parents know that I’m here. I only live 15 minutes away," she told them.

Dan raised his eyebrows as he stared at the girl. “That’s good I guess. Um… would you like a picture or something? We can’t stay that long though. We need to get home before it gets too dark and so should you,” Dan warned gently.

Lucy nodded. “Yes please! I have my phone here…” she said, pulling out her iPhone. “Can you take the picture?” she asked Phil.

"Oh, of course I can take the picture for you!" Phil exclaimed.

Lucy handed Phil her phone. Dan stood on one side of her while Phil stood on the other. They took two photos, as she requested. One of the photos was of them just smiling, and the other photo was of them pulling funny faces.

"It was very nice meeting you tonight, Lucy," Phil said to her once they were done taking photos. He reached over and gave her a friendly hug, and then she quickly got a hug from Dan too.

"Eeek! Thank you so much! I love you guys and your videos!" Lucy squealed.

Dan chuckled. “Thanks, Lucy. Alright. I think you should go home now. Be safe!”

Lucy smiled at them, and they watched as she skipped away.

"God, that was awkward," Dan said to Phil once she had gone away.

"Yeah, it kind of was. I’m not going to lie, but as long as she’s happy! That’s all that matters," Phil said.

Dan laughed and nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I suppose so. She seemed pretty happy if you ask me. But um, do you think that she saw us holding hands? She said that she’s been here a while,” he said. 

Phil bit his lip lightly and looked over at him. Phil could already tell that Dan was panicking about Lucy seeing him and Dan holding hands. He knew how Dan got when it comes to things like this. Of course Phil was just as worried as Dan, but he didn’t show it because he didn’t want Dan to worry about it because then Dan would panic. That was the last thing Phil wanted to happen. “I don’t know,” he mumbled before shrugging his shoulders.

Dan frowned as he stared at Phil, he didn’t know how Phil could be so calm about this. Why wasn’t Phil worried about Lucy posting pictures on the internet? Lucy had a camera with her and had been watching them since they walked out of the BBC together. Dan was 100% certain that he would find pictures online later. Phil didn’t seem to care though.

"Let’s not worry about it too much though. I’m sure everything will be just fine later,” he assured Dan, “We gotta go before it gets too dark. You know that I don’t like being out too late." Phil said.

Dan bit his lip. Looking back, he could still see the girl walking away. He sighed and then nodded to Phil.

Once Dan and Phil had stopped at Starbucks, they made their way back to their apartment to make themselves some dinner.

"I’m so freaking hungry. Do we even have anything to eat?" Phil asked, walking into the kitchen. He and Dan had just gotten home and Phil had gone straight to the kitchen so they could make dinner. It was rare when Dan wanted to make dinner together so he was quite excited about it. It would be relaxing and fun at the same time. "Dan?"

He looked around and then he sighed when he saw that Dan hadn’t come into the kitchen with him. Phil immediately walked to the lounge. He looked up and raised his eyebrows when he saw Dan was already sitting on the couch and was on his laptop. Phil knew exactly was he was doing. “Hey, what’s going on? I thought that we were gonna make dinner together,” Phil pouted.

Dan blinked a few times and looked up at him. “Oh, uh… Yeah, I’ll be in the kitchen in a minute. Don’t worry, we will cook something together, I just wanted to check my twitter real quick, I haven’t checked it in a while,” Dan told him, even though it was a lie. Dan hated lying to Phil, even if it was just a tiny lie, but he couldn’t help it. Dan knew that if Phil found out what he was doing then he would try and stop him from finding those pictures on the internet.

Phil sighed. “Fine,” he grumbled before turning around and walking back out of the lounge.

Dan sighed and then he looked back down at his laptop. He immediately logged onto tumblr. He couldn’t stop thinking about the girl they met earlier. Dan knew that she saw them holding hands. He just knew it. He was afraid that she’d post something about it online. That was the last thing that Dan wanted to happen. There were already enough rumors going around that he and Phil were dating. He didn’t want people to know that he was dating Phil, not yet at least.

Dan spent the next 10 minutes browsing tumblr. He didn’t see anything at first, which made calmed Dan down a little, but it didn’t take long. The girl, Lucy, had posted the pictures they took together and wrote a long post about what happened. Dan smiled as he read her story, she seemed so excited about the fact that she had met he and Phil, but the smile immediately faded as soon as he saw the next picture she posted. He groaned and shook his head.

"Fucking hell. Great. Just bloody great," he mumbled. He hid his face in his hands.

After a moment of staring at those pictures on tumblr, Dan sighed and shut his laptop. He stood up and walked into the kitchen, where Phil had already started making dinner. “We’re in big trouble, Phil,” Dan said.

Phil blinked a few times and looked over at him. “We are?” he asked, a little confused.

Dan nodded, taking a deep breath as he stared at Phil.

"And, why are we in trouble?" Phil asked curiously.

Dan sighed in frustration and walked over to him. “That girl saw us holding hands. She saw us, Phil! You said not to worry about it, but now she’s posted a picture of us holding hands together! So, yeah, we are in big trouble.” Dan snapped. “That picture already has like, 1,000 notes on tumblr! So many people have seen that picture already. I’m getting so many tweets about it and I’m sure people are spamming your twitter about the picture too!” He yelled. “Why are you being so calm about this? We can’t just let that photo float out on the internet for people to see…”

"What the hell do you want me to do about this, Dan?” Phil asked, cutting Dan off. He took a deep breath, “It’s just a picture. It’s not the end of the world," Phil mumbled, looking away from Dan.

"It is the end of the fucking world, Phil! Do you know what will happen if people find out that we’re dating?”

Phil sighed deeply before finally looking over at Dan.

"Yeah! I do not know what will happen. We won’t have to keep hiding like this anymore," Phil snapped.

Dan frowned. “You agreed that hiding our relationship from the subscribers would be best,” he whispered.

"Yeah, but I only said it to keep you happy. But, we also weren’t that popular on Youtube when we started dating, so it didn’t really bother me back then. Sure, we had a lot of subscribers, but not nearly as many as we do now. Not to mention it’s been three years since we started dating. Our four year anniversary is coming up in two months.” Phil hissed.

Phil took a deep breath. He didn’t like snapping or raising his voice at Dan. It was very rare when they argued like this. They only ever argued over stupid things, like when Phil left the kitchen cabinets open, or when Dan left a massive mess in the lounge. They never argued over anything serious, like about their relationship. They never argued liked this.

"You never told me that’s how you felt," Dan whispered.

"Because we always end up fighting when one of us brings this topic up. I really don’t like fighting with you like this,”

"We have to figure something out. People have seen that photo and it’s going to float around the internet and people will start spreading rumors and we won’t be able to post anything without them bugging us about it," Dan rambled on.

Phil groaned. He dropped what he was holding and then he walked over to Dan, taking his hands.

Dan stared at him. “Phil…” he began to say.

Phil shook his head, cutting Dan off. “No, listen to me, everything’s going to be okay, Dan—I promise.”

“How do you know that? How could you possibly know that?” Dan asked.

“Oh, come on, Dan. Don’t you trust me?” Phil asked calmly.

“Of course I trust you, I trust you more than anyone in the world,” Dan whispered as he stared up at Phil.

“I promise you that everything will be okay. It’s just a photo. Let people say what they want about us.”

"But, I thought you wanted to tell everyone about us?" Dan asked.

"I do, but I also don’t want to pressure you into doing something that you’re not ready to do yet. I obviously don’t want our relationship to stay a secret forever. You realize we will have to tell them eventually, right?

Dan nodded as he listened to Phil speak. Of course Dan didn’t want to hide his relationship with Phil forever.

“I don’t know. I just… I want to be able to take you out, and go on romantic dates, and hold your hand in public, and kiss you whenever I please. I want people to know that you’re mine. That’s the only reason why I want to come out. But, I know that coming out is a big deal and I do know that it’s not easy for a lot of people so I can understand why you’re afraid of coming out, trust me, I’m also afraid! You aren’t the only one here, just remember that,” Phil whispered.

"You’re the best boyfriend in the world, I just want you to know that," Dan whispered.

Dan flung his arms around Phil’s neck and hugged him tightly until his boyfriend smiled and hugged him back.

"I love you," Dan whispered, still keeping a hold of Phil, not wanting to let him go.

"I love you, too," Phil whispered back, as he held onto Dan.

They hugged for a few more seconds before Dan finally pulled away.

"So, what did you decide on making for dinner?" Dan asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Well, we didn’t have much,” Phil rolled his eyes playfully, “so I thought… Mexican!" Phil exclaimed excitedly.

Dan smiled, as he looked up at Phil. Times like these, Dan was very glad to have Phil as his boyfriend. Sure, they would argue about this every once in a while but then they would forget about it within seconds and act like the argument never even happened. That was one of the many things Dan loved the most about Phil.

——

It had been a couple weeks now since the picture of Dan and Phil holding hands had been posted on the internet. People were slowly starting to forget about it, which Dan was very pleased about. Of course, there were those people who posted it every time Dan and Phil went online and tried to get them to talk about it. Luckily, Dan had learned to ignore it.

Dan and Phil hadn’t spotted Lucy either. Dan was thankful because he’d been afraid she would try to stalk them again in order to get more pictures to post online. That was the last thing Dan wanted.

"Hey, Dan?" Phil called as he walked out of his bedroom one Sunday afternoon.

"Yeah? I’m in the lounge!" Dan called back.

Phil smiled as he made his way towards the lounge, where Dan was sitting on the couch with his laptop.

"Hey," Dan greeted as he looked up at his boyfriend.

Phil walked over to him. “Do you want to go out today? Like… just get some coffee or something?”

"Really? Why today?" Dan asked, a little surprised, as he shut his laptop. 

"I don’t know." Phil shrugged his shoulders. "I was gonna film a new video today, but the sun’s out for once,” he said.

Dan raised his eyebrows. “Well, okay… Sounds like a plan.” He stood up from the couch. “Are we going now?”

"Yes," Phil said, "before the sun goes away."

Dan laughed and rolled his eyes playfully. “Alright. Let me go get ready and then we’ll go.”

Dan gave Phil a kiss before he finally walked out of the lounge. He sighed as he made his way to his bedroom, not really wanting to go out. He would much rather stay in the apartment and mindlessly browse the internet for hours, but he couldn’t say no to Phil. On one hand, a day out with Phil did sound really nice, so he was kind of excited about it. He just hoped that they wouldn’t run into any more crazy stalkers like the last time they were out together.

"Okay, I’m ready to go now," Dan said as he walked back into the lounge, 15 minutes later, fully dressed.

“It’s about time!” Phil joked. He was sitting on the couch, but he stood up and smiled when Dan walked back into the room.

Dan rolled his eyes playfully. “Ha, ha, ha. So, where are we going first?”

“Well…” Phil gently wrapped his arms around Dan and pulled him closer, smiling as he looked down at him.

Dan smiled; sighing happily as he also looked up at Phil, resting his hands on Phil’s chest for a couple of seconds before wrapping his arms around Phil and kissing him sweetly once on the lips.

Phil smiled. “I was thinking we could get some coffee and then a walk in the park,” Phil told him, shrugging his shoulders lightly, “It’s nice out today and we should enjoy the sun while we can. It’ll be nice to talk a walk together,” he said.

Dan loved that Phil tried to get him to do romantic things, even if it was the littlest things, “Oh, how romantic of you, Phil,”

Phil pouted, though he knew that Dan was just joking around. Luckily, Phil got Dan’s ‘sarcastic humor’.

Dan laughed at Phil and then he kissed him until his pout was gone.

"Okay, let’s get going. I don’t want the sun to go away!" Phil said, dragging his laughing boyfriend out of the lounge.

Dan and Phil made their way to Starbuck’s. Thankfully it wasn’t that far away from their apartment so they were able to just walk there whenever they wanted, which was good, because they went to Starbucks a lot.

"Thank God it wasn’t busy today at Starbuck’s," Dan said as he walked beside Phil. They were just getting to the town park, which was quite empty that day. There were only a couple of people around. "I hate waiting," he whined.

"Yeah, Starbuck’s is awful when it’s busy," Phil agreed.

Dan smiled as he looked up at Phil. “Tell me about it,” Dan said, rolling his eyes.

But Dan and Phil had no idea that they were being followed and watched. Lucy had been at Starbuck’s with some of her friends and it didn’t take her long to notice that Dan and Phil were there. She immediately grabbed her camera and snapped multiple pictures of them at Starbuck’s before discreetly following them to the park. This time she was filming them and she didn’t even feel guilty about filming them. She couldn’t wait to go home and upload the video.

“I’m glad we got to go out today. The weather is so nice,” Phil said, looking around. 

Dan smiled. “Yeah! Our four-year anniversary is coming up,” Dan continued, “Maybe we could do something special?”

Phil raised his eyebrows as he looked over at Dan. Phil was honestly, a little surprised, as Dan was one who didn’t really like to do romantic things. He wasn’t the romantic type of person, not that Phil minded. They had never really been a romantic couple from the beginning and they were both surprisingly okay with that.

"I mean, we’ve never really celebrated our relationship before. I think it would be nice. We don’t have to do anything massive, of course. Maybe we could go to dinner or something?" Dan suggested.

"Of course we can do that! I think that sounds absolutely perfect," Phil said, smiling. "I would love to celebrate our four-year anniversary. It’s pretty important, if I’m being honest, and a romantic dinner with you sounds even better. Besides, four years is a long time. You’re right! We haven’t celebrated our relationship before so I think now is a perfect time to do it." He wrapped his arms around Dan’s shoulder, pulling him closer to him, and then gently kissed his forehead.

"Phil!" Dan hissed, immediately looking over at him. "Aren’t you worried someone will see us?"

"There’s like, five people at this park. I’m not worried about one of them knowing who we are," Phil said.

"Well, okay… if you say so," Dan said hesitantly.

Phil chuckled and shook his head, keeping his arm around Dan’s shoulder.

Dan bit his lip nervously. Despite Phil’s assurance that they were fine, he had the uneasy feeling that someone was watching him. After a few seconds of walking in silence, Dan finally looked behind him, but he didn’t see anyone.

Phil blinked a few times. “What’s the matter?” he asked calmly.

Dan looked around again, searching for any sign of someone watching them, but there was no one behind him. Dan sighed, “I-I just thought someone was following us or watching us or something,”

Phil rolled his eyes. “There’s no one there,” he said, also looking behind them and seeing no one there.

Dan sighed. “Obviously I can see that. I’m just telling you what I felt,” he mumbled.

"Come on, Dan. I’m sure it’s just your imagination. Let’s go find a bench to sit on or something," Phil suggested.

Dan nodded and then he went silent after that, following Phil to a nearby bench. Dan and Phil sat down next to each other on the bench. Phil frowned as he looked down at Dan. He didn’t like that Dan was so paranoid like this. Normally he and Dan would be able to go on walks in the park, just to relax. But now, Dan was so worried about seeing that girl again.

"Hey, come on. No one is watching us alright, I promise," Phil whispered.

"Someone is watching us—I can feel it," Dan mumbled, shaking his head.

"You’re just paranoid, Dan. You’ve been so worried about going outside again ever since that girl posted those photos. She can’t be everywhere we are. Besides, everybody’s basically forgotten about those photos by now," Phil told him.

"Do you think I’m crazy?" Dan asked quietly as he looked up at Phil.

Phil blinked a few times, a little confused by Dan’s question.

"Be honest," Dan warned before taking a deep breath.

Phil sighed. “Of course I don’t think you’re crazy, you silly goose! You’re not crazy.”

“Really? You think so?” Dan asked nervously as he stared at Phil.

“Stressed, maybe. But definitely not crazy, everything is going to be fine. I promise.” Phil wrapped his arm around Dan and held onto him protectively, which immediately made Dan relax. He knew that as long as he had Phil, he would be fine.

Dan and Phil sat there together, chatting about absolutely everything and nothing. Although they’d already been there for an hour, to them it only felt like 20 minutes had passed by, because they were enjoying their time together so much. They never ever got to do something like this usually. So, it was just nice for them to just sit and talk to each other and relax without having anything to worry about, even if it was just for a short period of time.

Or, at least they were having a good time until Dan noticed Lucy, not that far away from them. This time Dan actually saw her. He wasn’t crazy. Dan gasped sharply as he watched her run out of the park, with a camera in her hands. 

"Dan, what is it?" Phil asked nervously as he looked at Dan.

Dan didn’t answer him; he just stared with wide eyes, in shock.

"Dan?" Phil repeated. He shook Dan a few times.

"It’s that girl!" Dan yelled as he looked over at Phil again.

Phil raised his eyebrows. “What are you going on about?” He asked curiously.

Dan sighed and shook his head. “I saw her, Phil! The girl we’ve been talking about? She’s following us again!”

Phil groaned. “There is no one following us, and there is no one watching us, okay? Just stop.” he snapped.

"Why won’t you believe me?" Dan whispered, a little hurt by what Phil had said.

Phil stared at him, not sure of what he should say.

"Aren’t you worried?" Dan asked as he looked over at him again.

"What? Yes, I’m worried! Of course I’m worried. Absolutely! But I’m not going to let some teenage girl get in the way of me living my life,” Phil took a deep breath, “You need to let this go,” Phil said harshly.

Dan scoffed and shook his head, standing up from the park bench.

"Wait a minute, where are you going?" Phil asked as he looked up at Dan.

"I’m going home. I don’t feel safe out here," Dan mumbled, walking away from Phil.

Dan immediately went home to his and Phil’s apartment after he left the park. He didn’t stop anywhere. Dan didn’t even wait for Phil, though it didn’t take long before Phil caught up with him. Dan didn’t want to be outside any longer than he needed to be. He wanted to be back in his apartment, where he felt safe and protected.

"Dan, you honestly have nothing to worry about," Phil assured him, following Dan up the stairs.

"You just don’t understand what I’m feeling, Phil!" Dan snapped. "That girl is everywhere!"

“Dan, you need to just forget about that girl and think about more important things,” Phil said.

“I’ve already tried that before and it didn’t exactly work,” he mumbled.

"Who cares about that girl anyways?" Phil asked calmly.

Dan immediately spun back around and stared at Phil, wide eyed. “What are you…? I fucking care, Phil!” he yelled. “I mean… she’s already posted pictures of us holding hands. Everybody saw that post. A lot of people saw that post. Thousands of people,” Dan took a deep breath as he stared at Phil, “even some of our Youtube friends. What’s she gonna do next?” Dan asked angrily, throwing his hands up in the air. “She’s ruining our lives one picture at a time!”

"Take a deep breath, Dan," Phil commanded gently. He walked up to him. "Deep breath."

Dan nodded and took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he did so.

"Okay. I don’t want you stressing over this. This isn’t worth stressing about," Phil said.

"I’m sorry," Dan whispered, shaking his head. "Maybe you’re right."

Phil smiled. “How about we go watch a movie or something? Maybe it’ll get your mind off of things,” he suggested.

Dan nodded. “Okay. A movie sounds good, I guess.” Though, Dan still wasn’t going to get this girl off of his mind. He couldn’t help but think about what she was going to post next. He knew that she’d had a camera when he saw her running away.

Phil leaned forward and gently kissed Dan once on the lips.

Dan smiled as back up at Phil when the kiss ended. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Phil looked questioningly at him, unsure of what Dan was thanking him for.

"I-I don’t know. For everything. I don’t know how you put up with me. I can’t even put up with myself sometimes," Dan mumbled. Dan had been wanting to say that to Phil for a long time, and now was the perfect time to say it.

Phil rolled his eyes. He grabbed Dan’s hand and led the way to the lounge, ignoring what Dan had said before.

"Can we watch Harry Potter?" Dan asked, smiling innocently.

"Dan, we’ve seen each of the Harry Potter movies about a million times," Phil complained.

"You can never have too much Harry Potter," Dan defended.

Phil chuckled and shook his head. “Alright, whatever you say, love. Go put in the DVD.”

Dan smiled and nodded. This was exactly what he needed. Phil always knew how to make him feel better.

Phil sat down on the couch while Dan grabbed Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and popped it into the DVD player before plopping down on the couch next to him. Phil wrapped his arms around Dan and pulled him closer.

——

Two days later, things still hadn’t gotten any better. Dan tried to forget about the girl who he had seen at the park. He tried to forget about the fact that she could have taken pictures of them and posted them online.

Dan even stayed off the internet for two days, but he couldn’t handle it anymore.

It was a Tuesday evening when Dan finally went back online. He was alone in the lounge as Phil was in his bedroom, editing a new video. He immediately went onto tumblr and searched his tag, sighing when the first thing he saw was a video.

"Oh yeah, Phil. I’ve got nothing to worry about. Everything’s going to be just bloody fine," Dan mumbled.

"Dan, are you talking to yourself again? I thought we talked about this before," Phil joked as he walked into the lounge. 

Dan looked up and was surprised when he saw Phil. “I-I thought you were editing a new video?” he asked nervously.

"And I thought that you were taking a break from the internet," Phil reminded him. He walked over and then sat down next to Dan on the couch. "Don’t tell me you’re worrying about that girl again," he groaned.

"There’s a video! A fucking video, Phil!" Dan exclaimed. "I haven’t watched it yet, but since you’re here now…" he mumbled.

Phil sighed and leaned back against the couch, as he watched Dan.

Dan turned the laptop so they both could see it and then he pressed play on the video.

“So, I was thinking… Our four year anniversary is coming up. Maybe we could do something special? I mean, we’ve never really celebrated our relationship before. I think it would be a nice thing to do. We don’t have to do anything massive, of course. Maybe we could go to dinner or something? Just hang out and stuff.”

"Of course we can do that! I think that sounds absolutely perfect, I would love to celebrate our four-year anniversary. It’s pretty important, if I’m being honest, and a romantic dinner with you sounds even better. Besides, four years is a long time. You’re right! We haven’t celebrated our relationship before so I think now is a perfect time to do it.”

“Phil! Aren’t you worried someone will see us?”

“There’s like, five people at this park. I’m not worried about one of them knowing who we are,"

“Well, okay… if you say so.”

Dan crossed his arms against his chest as he looked over at Phil, who stared at the laptop in shock.

"So, are you worried yet, Phil?" Dan demanded.

Phil immediately sat up. “Okay, that’s bad. You weren’t lying when you said someone was watching us,”

"Come on! I would never lie to you Phil," Dan whispered back. He clicked the source of the video and saw that it had been posted on Youtube. "Oh, great. This video has over 30,000 views! That’s a hell of a lot of people!"

"Tell her to take it down," Phil demanded. "Now."

Dan scoffed and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if we ask her to take it down and she deletes it,” he snapped. “People have been re-posting that video multiple times in my tag and in yours. I’m sure there have been people who’ve saved the video, so even if we asked her to take it down, someone else will just re-upload it for more people to see.” He slammed his laptop shut with a groan. “I told you, Phil… someone has been stalking us, but you didn’t believe me.”

Phil frowned. “I’m so sorry, Dan.” He reached over and gently wrapped his arms around Dan.

Dan turned and hid his face in Phil’s chest. “We’re fucked,” Dan mumbled.

Phil chuckled and shook his head. “We’ll figure something out. We always do,” he assured, gently rubbing Dan’s back.

"What are we going to tell people? This isn’t something we can just ignore," Dan said with a sigh.

"Obviously we’re gonna have to tell the truth," Phil concluded.

"I hate that we’re being forced to do this," Dan mumbled, "I wish she’d never posted the photos."

"I know," Phil said, before he let out a sigh. "So, what are we going to do?" he asked, looking down at Dan again.

"I guess we just make a video and explain to the subscribers that we are in a relationship." Dan mumbled.

"Well, this should be fun," Phil said sarcastically.

Dan pouted and wrapped his arms around Phil, hugging him tightly.

Phil sighed as he stared down at him. “Maybe something good will come out of this.”

Dan looked up at him. “You think so?” he asked.

Phil nodded. “Of course I think so.” He leaned down and pressed his lips against Dan’s forehead.

Dan smiled and snuggled into him again, still keeping a hold of him.

Phil laughed and pulled him closer, keeping his arms gently wrapped around Dan.

——

Two days later, Dan and Phil were finally ready to make their ‘Coming Out’ video. Neither of them had posted anything on the internet. They didn’t update their tumblr. They didn’t tweet anything. They didn’t even post anything on Facebook. All they cared about was getting this video filmed and uploaded. They decided that they weren’t even going to edit the video.

"Are you ready to do this, Phil?" Dan asked. He was sitting on Phil’s bed while his boyfriend finished setting up the camera.

"I am. I’ve been waiting to do this for a while now. But, are you ready to do this?" Phil asked.

"No," Dan whispered, taking a deep breath.

Phil frowned and immediately looked over at him.

Dan looked up at him. “But, it’s now or never,” he whispered.

Phil smiled and nodded. “We’ll be fine, no matter what happens. I promise you,”

Dan took a deep breath and slowly nodded.

Phil turned on the camera before walking back to the bed and sitting down next to Dan. “We can do this,” Phil whispered.

Dan looked over at him, not saying anything.

Phil leaned forward and pressed his lips against Dan’s.

Dan closed his eyes and nervously kissed Phil back.

Once Phil had pulled away, he stared at Dan for a few seconds before finally looking over at the camera. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening his eyes again. He couldn’t believe this was finally happening after three years of being in a relationship with Dan. He just hoped that Dan would be okay with it once everybody knew of their relationship.

"Hey guys!” Phil greeted the camera, smiling as he did so. “So… today I have a very, very special guest with me for this video…" He looked over as he pointed at Dan. "It’s danisnotonfire! Most of you should know who he is by now. If you don’t, then you must be new or something because he’s been in tons of my videos already."

Dan looked up at the camera and smiled slightly.

"Hey internet," Dan said with his signature two-fingered salute. He looked back over at Phil again.

"So, today’s going to be a short video, but it’s kind of an important one," Phil said. "Right Dan?"

"Um, yeah. It kind of is important," Dan said. "So, neither me nor Phil has been posting online recently and I’m sure some of you can probably guess why. A couple things have come up…" He sighed. "We know that 99% of you have all seen those pictures of us holding hands, and then that video came up a while ago,”

"Yeah, we’re only making this video because of what was said in that video," Phil said, sighing. "You might’ve heard Dan talking about a four-year anniversary. So, let’s just tell it straight here. Yes, me and Dan are dating. We have been dating for quite a long time now, as you can probably guess. We just didn’t want to tell our subscribers because we thought it was for the best. Only our family and some of our close friends knew. To be honest, I didn’t really care if people knew that we were dating but Dan did, so I didn’t really mind hiding—I would do anything for Dan to keep him happy,”

Dan blushed and Phil smiled as he looked over at him again.

"Yeah," Dan whispered. He took a deep breath. "But, this doesn’t change anything," he promised as he looked away from Phil and over at the camera. "We’re still going to make our Youtube videos. We’re still going to do the radio show every Sunday until I do something stupid and get us fired. Surprisingly, I haven’t gotten us fired yet and it’s been a whole year now."

Phil chuckled at him and rolled his eyes playfully.

"Me and Phil still live together. We just… happen to be dating. So, this is our coming out video. I hope you’re happy. I’m sure some of you have been waiting for this moment for a long, long, long time now."

Phil laughed and nodded. “Yup, the rumors are true. Phan’s real. Everybody go crazy!” he shouted excitedly.

Dan laughed and then looked over at Phil. “Do you think we should…?” he started to ask.

Phil looked back at him. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Dan smiled and nodded, blushing a little. “Yes,” he whispered. He wrapped his arms around Phil and pulled him into a kiss.

Phil smiled and kissed him back. They kissed for a few seconds before Phil finally pulled away and smiled as he stared at Dan.

Dan kept his arms around Phil as his boyfriend looked back at the camera.

"Bye internet," Phil said with a wave. He reached over and turned the camera off.

Dan laughed until Phil grabbed him and pushed him on his back. Dan squealed once he was on his back.

Phil smirked slightly as he stared down at Dan.

Dan took deep breaths as he stared back at him. “We have to get that video uploaded, Phil,” he whispered.

"We can do that later," Phil whispered back. He leaned down and pressed his lips against Dan’s.

Dan moaned lightly before he finally kissed Phil back.

——

It was currently around midnight. Dan and Phil had already uploaded their ‘Coming Out’ video to both of their Youtube channels—danisnotonfire and AmazingPhil. Both videos already had hundreds of thousands of views.

They were both kind of overwhelmed with all the support they were getting from their subscribers and fellow Youtubers. Of course, they had lost a couple hundred subscribers and were getting some hate messages already, but it was nothing they couldn’t handle. They had both been getting hate since the beginning of their Youtube career, they were used to it. They were just focusing on all the support that they were getting from everybody.

Dan was glad that they had posted their video. He wished they would have done it a while ago, like Phil had suggested but of course, Dan was being stubborn and never listened to what Phil had to say.

"This is kind of awesome," Dan said. He and Phil were sitting next to each other up in their little office area. Dan was on his laptop while Phil was on his. They were both going through comments on Youtube and checking their twitters.

Phil looked over at Dan and smiled. He hadn’t seen Dan smile and this happily in weeks. It was nice for him to see, especially after everything they’ve been through lately. “Told you,” Phil whispered.

Dan rolled his eyes as he looked over at Phil. “You have every right to say I told you so, because, well… you were right.” Dan let out a sigh. He stood up and then he sat down on Phil’s lap.

Phil smiled as he wrapped his arms around Dan and held onto him.

"I know. I was too worried about all the hate we would get and I wasn’t thinking about any of our subscriber’s support. I just can’t believe that it took a 13-year-old girl exposing us on the internet to realize this," Dan mumbled.

Phil laughed, nodding his head before looking over at Dan again. “Yeah,” he sighed, “but, I think we made the right choice. We weren’t exactly thrilled about making that video but…”

Dan quickly shook his head. “No, you’re right. It was definitely the right choice and I’m glad we did this,” he whispered.

Phil smiled bigger as he stared up at Dan.

A couple months ago, Dan would never agree to make a coming out video. But now, he was glad that they had done it. Dan had only been afraid of getting hate and losing subscribers. But, 95% of his and Phil’s subscribers were happy for them.

Dan wrapped his arms around Phil’s neck and kissed him passionately, and Phil immediately kissed him back.

"I love you… so fucking much," Dan mumbled against Phil’s lips.

Phil pulled away from the kiss and took deep breaths as he stared at Dan. “And I love you too,”

Dan smiled, blushing a little, before kissing Phil once more.

Dan was quite excited about his and Phil’s future, now that they were officially out. They didn’t have to hide anymore. They would be able to hold hands in public, hug whenever they wanted, and even kiss if they wanted.

Dan could now understand why Phil wanted to come out before this.

“Hey, Dan?” Phil asked as the kiss ended again.

Dan raised his eyebrows as he looked up at Phil. “Yes, Phil?”

“How about we go celebrate?” Phil suggested, “I mean we don’t have to but…”

“Pfft. Are you serious?” Dan looked over at Phil, “Of course we can fucking celebrate!” Dan exclaimed before standing up from the chair, pulling Phil up with him and leading the way out of the office.

Phil smiled as he happily followed Dan out of their office.

Dan and Phil had been through a lot the past few weeks.

But, after everything they’ve been through, they could finally be happy and they didn’t have to worry anymore.

Dan was happy again and that’s all that mattered to Phil.


End file.
